Air conditioning and/or heating ducts are often installed above the ceiling in buildings. The duct work leads to a fitting, which directs the air into a room. The fitting is typically secured to structures above a sheetrock (gypsum board) ceiling and protrudes through the ceiling into the room below. A register is placed over the end of the fitting after the sheetrock is in place. Most conventional registers are manufactured with two fastener holes, one at each end, to secure the register to the ceiling. If a structural member happens to be directly above one of the register holes, a screw can be driven through the hole and sheetrock, and into the structural member to secure the register in place. Otherwise, the register may only be secured by the screw in the sheetrock. This type of connection may hold for a time, but is not permanently secure. Any vibration or impact against the register will likely cause the screw to pull out of the relatively soft gypsum material comprising the sheetrock.
The problem of securing a register or other terminal end of an assembly in place is also encountered with other ceiling and wall materials. Wall and/or ceiling materials such as sheetrock, thin paneling, or plaster are simply incapable of securely holding a threaded fastener, because the materials weaken and eventually break apart or splinter over time.
Some attempts have been made in the prior art at solving this problem of securing an air duct register to a wall or ceiling. For instance, an air duct register mounting clip is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,349 (Dearing). The patent describes a clip that can be bent around the edges of the wall or ceiling material through which the air duct fitting passes. The register is secured in place with two screws, each of which passes through the register, the wall or ceiling, and the clip. This clip may help to distribute the load, but several problems remain. These problems include having to keep a stock of the special clips on hand when installing registers, having to pre-drill holes in the sheetrock, having to use screws sized specifically to fit the clip holes, and having to align the clips over pre-drilled holes in the sheetrock. These limitations increase the cost and time to install each register.
Related devices and methods have also been used in other applications, such as installing outlet boxes and electrical switch boxes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,414 (Grant) discloses an outlet box fastener that can be bent into shape. However, this fastener has most of the same limitations as the Dearing patent. It also includes the additional limitation of not being amenable to the attachment of a register after installation of the outlet box. Surface member 12 has neither a pre-drilled hole nor support for drilling a hole to accept a screw.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,315,924 (Greenwood) discloses a supported box-like structure, into which screws can be fastened, attached to the side of an outlet box. However, this structure, since it is manufactured as a box permanently affixed to the side of the outlet box, tends to get in the way during installation, particularly if it is not needed. Also, because the box-like structure permanently protrudes from the side of the outlet box, shipment and handling of the box is more difficult.
In consideration of the limitations and disadvantages of the devices and methods currently in use, it should be apparent that an effective solution to the problem of securing an air duct register to an air duct fitting through a wall member is not provided in the known prior art. Accordingly, the present invention was developed, and it provides significant advantages over previous devices or methods to secure air duct registers.